Rafael Nadal cruises to French Open second round
Rafael Nadal has begun his quest to regain the French Open crown with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 victory over French wildcard Gianni Mina.
The world No. 2 is yet to be defeated on clay this spring, and despite acquitting himself well in the match, where he created nine break point chances but converted none of them, the 653rd ranked Mina was in the end outclassed by the man known as the King of Clay.
The 18-year-old will take some bragging rights from the match after hitting more winners than Nadal (21 to 20) but the victory confirmed what we knew all along, and that’s that Nadal remains the player to beat in the men’s draw at Roland Garros.
Earlier in the day, Nadal’s Spanish counterpart Fernando Verdasco also cruised to victory in his opening match of the French Open, with the Spaniard defeating the unseeded Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in the opening match of the day on Suzanne Lenglen Court.
The seventh seed pounded home a succession of forehand winners for the match as the world No. 103 proved no match for the Barcelona Open titlist as he seeks to continue his strong form this clay court season at Roland Garros.
“I'm very, very happy to have won the match during this first round, because I played better with time. Of course, I gained more confidence as the sets were going by,” Verdasco said after the match.
While everything proceeded as planned for Verdasco in the first round, 26th seed Juan Monaco made an early exit at the hands of world No. 42 Grega Zemlja. The Slovenian, playing in just the third Grand Slam of his career defeated Monaco in two sets and claimed a reasonably impressive scalp in his first victory at a major.
Sam Querrey, who won the title on clay at the Serbia Open in Belgrade earlier in May, was another to trip at the first hurdle at Roland Garros, the 18th seed losing to American counterpart Robby Ginepri in four sets. Ginepri, ranked 98th in the world, now moves through to the second round of the French Open for just the second time in eight attempts at the tournament.
Andy Roddick looked to be heading the same way as Querrey after Jarkko Nieminen took a 2-1 lead in the match, but the sixth seed fought his way back into the match and to a five set victory.
Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 Roland Garros titlist, moved through to the second round in straight sets, as did Austria’s Jurgen Melzer.
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